Adopting Boys

Immigration Approval Received!!

This past weekend we were camping at Mohican.  Saturday morning we received a message from the campground office that we had received some important mail at home.  We borrowed a cell phone that had service and got the news from Jeff's mom that we had received our long awaited I-797 approval (to be able to adopt a child from the Peoples Republic of China).  It was the last document we needed to gather before it all gets sealed and sent off to China!!

The paper chase isn't over yet, but should be soon!  We came back a little early from camping so Jeff and I could go get all our documents notarized and certified.  It was a blessing that Jeff had the day off.  We started off in Cuyahoga Falls with the notary and then to Akron.  It was there that we noticed our homestudy was actually signed in Cuyhoga County (Cleveland).  No problem - we headed there for one more certification.  When we got to Cleveland, we found out that even though it was signed in Cuyahoga County, it was signed by a notary from Lorain County.  Off to Elyria!  I am happy to report that we are completely certified at (ALL) the county levels!!  Columbus here we come!!

July update

We just had our biometric fingerprints done for USCIS aka US citizenship and immigration services yesterday. (I just had to look that up to see what USCIS stood for) Hope to have the first round of immigration approval soon.

Jeff and I got to our immigration appointment 40 minutes early and since it's a federal building that wouldn't let us go up early until all the employees arrived. We enjoyed people watching in the lobby of the federal building. It was like a mega episode of What Not to Wear for Federal Employees. I can only imagine the diversity of offices in the building but there were employees in everything from sweatpants & flip flops to Sunglasses (indoor) & uniforms to suits & tennis shoes.

Sorry if you are reading my blog to get any deep insights - I hope those will be in the near future;) Waiting is a bummer sometimes, so it's nice to have your mind wonder and stop thinking of the wait and the what ifs. It's such a weird feeling to miss someone you don't even know yet or know a thing about.

June Update

I wish there were tons to share, but there isn't. Our immigration papers have been submitted and were received, but it will probably be a month or two till we get approval. And so we wait... The kids and I have been working on VBS decorations this week. We are making this really cool airplane hanger for our set that should look a lot like the one pictured. Robbie was picked to play in a kickball at Progressive Field last week to represent his class. His school helped to raise money for the Kick-It Childhood Cancer charity. He had a great time and we all got to tag along for the tour of ballpark. We finished the day with a meal in Little Italy and a trip to the Westside Market.

Asian food trials

Here are the foods the kids picked to try out from the Asian market. I would say we had less than a 50% hit rate. Pork buns ( surprisingly good!) peach soda, plantains, cilantro and sugar crackers were all very good. Coconut soda, chicken buns, ham & cheese crackers ( yes they were as bad as they sound) and tea cookies (soap like texture and taste?) not so much. All the cookies we tried weren't too bad either. The ramen style noodles are a little different than "american" ones too - comes with an oil seasoning pack and sort of a funky flavor.   Still waiting to try the dumplings...

Family pictures

I though I would post some of our family pictures that we have been taking for our dossier.

We borrowed our canine "nephew" from next door

May update

Home visits are complete! Actually the visits were pretty painless (we did have to move our "ammo" away from our bb gun though ;) however our social worker was very nice. It was great motivation to keep the house picked up for 3 whole weeks. We are waiting to have our home study written up and hopefully it should be complete by next week. Our next thing is - immigration approval to be able to adopt a child from China. We have heard that it can take 30 - 90 days to get approval. Once we have that document, we can finish having all our documents sealed (at the county, state, federal and Chinese consulate levels) and THEN it all can go to China.